What's in a name? For churches, a lot

Monday

Dec 29, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Jeff Brumley

Running a successful church requires cutting-edge marketing and branding as much as it does innovative preaching and ministry.The Fellowship at Celebration Baptist Church has learned that the hard way during the past decade as a similarly named congregation has become synonymous with the word "Celebration."As a result, the East Arlington congregation is changing its name on Thursday to FaithBridge Church.That's something church member Jaime Brasseit said she's had to pray to accept."I liked 'Celebration,' and I kinda wish we had kept 'Baptist,' " Brasseit, 22, said after a recent Sunday morning service.But Brasseit said she knows the name change - including dropping the reference to the congregation's Southern Baptist denomination - is necessary.Necessary because another congregation in town - Celebration Church pastored by Stovall Weems - has grown so big, so fast in the past decade that it simply owns that name, said the Rev. Paul White, pastor of the Baptist group.And "Baptist" is being dropped - the word only - because denomination names are a turn-off to the mostly younger, largely unchurched singles and families White and his flock are trying to attract, he said."Most people think we are a satellite of the other Celebration," White said. Others told him they wouldn't come if they knew it was a Baptist church.Marketing religionThe Fellowship's identity-altering situation reflects an ongoing trend that sees American congregations becoming ever conscious and purposeful in selecting and marketing their names, said Mara Einstein, an expert on church marketing and branding and a media studies professor at Queens College in New York.It all started in the 1970s with the explosive growth of megachurches that scrapped denominational names or affiliations to woo generations that had become disenchanted with the trappings of traditional, organized religion, Einstein said.Religious leaders quickly learned that what they name themselves, and how they market their names and images, is just as important in the church world as it is in the business world, she said.It's become common to hire consultants to help with selecting names, logos and slogans that will quickly communicate a congregation's personality, worship style and ministries. Consultants are also used to research demographic trends to help the churches identify and attract new members.Evangelist Rick Warren has been a trendsetter in this arena, Einstein said.The pastor of Saddleback Church in California, Warren is known the world over through his books, Internet and anti-AIDS ministries. He has even been selected to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month.What they may not know is that he and his congregation are Southern Baptist, which Einstein said is no accident in Warren's attempt to reach a broader audience."Rick Warren is an unbelievable marketer."'Communicating culture'The goal of church marketing, which includes naming, is to tell people what a congregation is all about in one or two words, said the Rev. Gee Sprague, lead pastor of CrossRoad Church in Jacksonville."The name talks about the culture you are trying to create," Sprague said.CrossRoad was launched about 13 years ago by the United Methodist Church to reach a demographic that is largely younger and with little or no church background.That name was chosen to communicate the notion that people in crises will be nurtured there, Sprague said. It's also meant to be a play on words conveying that the church is at the crossroads of activity as well as on the road to the cross and redemption.But going without the denomination name doesn't mean the congregation isn't true to its Methodist roots and the innovations of founder John Wesley, Sprague said."We are still Wesleyan with an emphasis on Scripture, on a personal relationship with God, on grace and on . . . being a church that's out in the world, - not being insulated."Likewise, Celebration Baptist will still be Baptist after it becomes FaithBridge Church, said the Rev. John Walker, associate pastor.That means continuing to believe and preach in the inerrancy of Scripture and cooperating with other Southern Baptist churches in raising money for missions and conducting evangelistic outreach." 'Baptist' in the name doesn't make you Baptist," Walker said. "What makes you Baptist is your beliefs, your doctrinal positions."Growing confusionBesides, The Fellowship had to do something about the growing confusion between the two Celebration congregations, Walker said.Celebration Baptist church was founded 11 years ago as an outgrowth of Arlington Baptist Church. Celebration Church was founded the following year. The confusion in town began almost immediately, said Walker, who is a founding member of The Fellowship.Awareness of the newer Celebration came just a few months later when a member of the Baptist congregation showed church leaders a mailer he had received from Weems' congregation.In the ensuing years - as Weems' Celebration grew by the thousands and opened satellite campuses around the city, the state and the world - Walker and others began seeing more signs of confusion.Walker said it was common to see visitors speaking on cell phones saying, " 'We're here, where are you?' They were trying to hook up with someone who was at the other Celebration."To cut down on the miscommunication, the congregation added "The Fellowship" to the front of its name. But that didn't help as they continued to get Weems' mail "and people would get a mailing from us and show up at the other church."Weems said they knew there was another "Celebration" in town when his church was started. But they went ahead thinking there wouldn't be much confusion between his non-denominational church and one that is Baptist. Plus it communicated what he wanted people to know about the congregation: "That we celebrate God no matter what's going on and that we are an uplifting, energetic church."Convincing membersThe Fellowship finally decided to change its name when White came on board about a year ago, seeing it as a good time to make a clean break with the name and the confusion, Walker said.White said he originally preferred keeping the denominational moniker but, like many other church members, was swayed when research showed the term "Baptist" would be a turnoff to much of the demographic the church was trying to reach.Even the congregation's senior members, such as Mary Jo Goethe, got on board at that point.Goethe said she's been a Southern Baptist for 60-plus years and has no problem dropping the name if it means bringing more people for Christ. Even "the older crowd" in her Sunday school group are of one mind on that score, she said."If you're going to reach people, you have to change," she said.They're equally excited about the new name - FaithBridge - because it conjures Jacksonville's bridges, which serve to link communities together just as the church links believers to Christ, Goethe said.Even Brasseit said she's looking forward to the new name."A lot of people are scared off by the 'Baptist,' " which some people equate with being "ultra-preachy, judgmental.""That's not the case here," she said.jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4310

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